The Space Needle & Chihuly Garden in Seattle
Seattle was a whirlwind of a vacation. It was one of those unexpected trips that end up being one of your favorites. We originally had dreams of traveling somewhere in the south, but timing and budget got away so we booked a cheap flight to Seattle instead. Our flight in was an early one, which was great because it left more of the day for exploring and eating!
After landing we used the airport train to hop a ride downtown and over to Capital Hill where we checked into our Airbnb apartment. Our apartment was dreamy - full of beautiful light and artwork that our host had collected over time.
We loved our Airbnb experience and highly recommend it to anyone else! Having a host in the city was really invaluable since he gave us a good idea of how to get around and where to go vs. where to skip.
We wanted to avoid staying downtown, and preferred the home away from home feel that Airbnb had. As for the neighborhood, I really loved Capital Hill. It was definitely a hipper area and near the Seattle University campus, so there were tons of young people with plenty of hot spots to check out. The distance was nice too, sometimes we walked all the way downtown which only took 20-30 minutes.
We were quite hungry after settling in, so we stopped at a cozy sandwich shop, Honeyhole, for a bite and a beer. The sandwiches were really good, I had a Tomato Field Roast veggie with pesto on a hot baguette, and Rus got their famous "The Gooch" with tri-tip beef and horseradish mayo - yum! After we were properly fueled we headed across town to check out the museums.
What's nice about Seattle is that all the main tourist museums are in one area, which makes it super easy to visit one right after the other. When I was researching places to visit on our trip I heard that the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum was a must-see. Even though the exhibit was short, I still feel like it was really worth it since every piece is so detailed and visually stunning.
The atrium was amazing! The sunny weather just shone through and really lit up all the wonderful glass red sculptures. Each of these pieces represent hours of work and layers of glass blown together to shape these wonderful organic sea-inspired shapes. Just mind-blowing.
After drooling over all the amazing sculptures in Chihuly we decided to skip the other museums and ride the elevator to the top of the Space Needle. We heard that the popularity of the restaurant and needle had declined lately, but I found the view really amazing. Even looking up at the needle from the garden was awe-inspiring.
We had originally wanted to go to a warmer location but the travel gods must've had mercy on us, because when we arrived in Seattle it was sunny the entire time. As you can tell from these Space Needle photos, the skies were blue and pretty clear.
After heading back to the apartment for a nap we finished the night off at Rock Creek, which was delicious. They had a whole Acadian Redfish on special - and I decided to go for it! I've never eaten a whole fish before, and it didn't disappoint. It was well cooked, had great flavor and I only hit two small bones - it was so flaky.
Besides our entrees we split a Dungeness Crab stuffed Tamale which was extra crispy and tasty. Then we split a S'more Chocolate Mousse dessert. The bottom had the most sweet and salty delectable graham cracker crust! It was definitely my favorite meal of the trip. All in all a great first part of our Seattle adventure.
More to come soon!